The Estes Park School District has been awarded the School Counseling Corps Grant thanks to its school’s partnership with the Colorado Education Initiative.
“We’re pretty excited,” said Superintendent Ruby Bode. “We are looking at building out our career and college planning and preparation, K through 12.”
The grants were announced on June 20 and will be available for the 2025-2026 school year.
Bode said the District wants to ensure that when students graduate and “step out our door, they have all the resources they need and have a plan for what’s next, for life, college, career, whatever they decide to pursue.”
The state-funded, competitive, four-year grants are designed to distribute funds to eligible education providers to increase the availability of effective school-based guidance counseling.
The grants aim to increase graduation rates and the percentage of students who prepare for, apply for, and continue into postsecondary education. They also aim to support work-based learning awareness, education, and opportunities.
The District will receive $30,000 for the upcoming school year to support counselor stipends and program development, which Bode describes as a planning year. Beginning in 2026-2027, the grant will be $95,000 annually for three years to fund a new full-time counselor focused on work-based learning and college and career planning.
Bode said the grant will increase the District’s guidance counselor ratio to one counselor for every 200 students. The American School Counselor Association recommends a student-to-guidance counselor ratio of 250 students per counselor.
“Our ratio for school counseling is already good. It’s going to be even better. It’s going to allow us to support our kids better, because our school counselors currently are trying to do the social emotional support on a daily basis, and career and academic, and work-based learning,” said Bode.
One of the District’s three focus areas in its strategic plan for students is real-world learning opportunities. A new guidance counselor will allow the schools to increase work-based learning opportunities for students with area businesses. Last year, the District received a two-year grant for AI training for teachers. “All the new curriculum companies, all their digital resources, have AI embedded in them,” said Bode.